Child Health Improvement in a Summer Camp (Parental Opinion)

Abstract

Introduction: Efficiency criteria of recreational facilities for children shall be updated in the light of goals and tasks set for contemporary camps. Objective: To evaluate parents’ opinion about organization of recreation and health improvement in children’s summer camps. Materials and methods: In 2019–2020, an anonymous questionnaire-based survey of 343 parents, potential consumers of children’s recreation services, from 48 Russian regions was carried out with support of the Internet catalog of children’s camps incamp.ru. Results: According to the parents, the main purpose of the children’s stay in the camp is rest (88.0 % of the respondents; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 84.6–91.5), mastering of communication skills and making new friends (79.9 %; 95 % CI: 75.6–84.1), health improvement (49.0 %; 95 % CI: 43.7–54.3), and acquisition of new knowledge (48.1 %; 95 % CI: 42.8–53.4). A third of the parents positively assessed health improvement of their child in the camp without specifying its criteria (32.3 %; 95 % CI: 27.4–37.4); 27.1 % (95 % CI: 22.4–31.8) noted an improvement in the child physical and emotional state. The respondents believed that child health improvement was strongly influenced by increased physical activity (86.6 %; 95 % CI: 83.0–90.2), diet quality (83.7 %; 95 % CI: 79.8–87.6), camp location (77.0 %; 95 % CI: 72.5–81.4), and living conditions (74.3 %; 95 % CI: 69.7–79.0). The parents were of the opinion that the length of stay was of least importance for health improvement (32.1 %; 95 % CI: 27.1–37.0). Conclusions: An effective system of developing children’s recreation and health improvement should take into account that parents and guardians are an essential part of it as potential consumers of children’s recreation services and their current expectations need to be considered when updating efficiency criteria for children’s camps.